Posted: July 13th, 2015

Two management capabilities most sought after by employers are the ability to think strategically and the ability to drive results. The purpose of this task is to have you bring your focus to bear on these two capabilities.

Two management capabilities most sought after by employers are the ability to think strategically and the ability to drive results. The purpose of this task is to have you bring your focus to bear on these two capabilities.

Scenario:

Assume that you are employed in a company providing service in a healthcare, lodging, or retail trade industry. The president of your company has expressed concern about the company’s ability to remain competitive and has asked you to develop a program to improve the strategic management activities within the company. The president feels that the planning must be more sophisticated and should utilize the most current planning concepts. The entire organization must be more closely aligned to the company’s mission, and execution of the plan must be more effective.

You have been asked to develop a strategic plan for your company and a business report explaining the components of your plan by discussing the strategic management process and describing how the plan should be executed to achieve sustainable dominant competitive advantage.

Task:

A.  Evaluate the industry environment for your company by doing the following:
1.  Discuss one dominant economic feature of your industry.
2.  Analyze the impact on industry profitability of the most significant force driving change in your industry.
a.  Explain how you plan to provide for that force in your strategic plan.
3.  Discuss two significant differentiating competitive characteristics of your industry.
a.  Analyze where you want your company situated on a strategic group map that you draw using these differentiating competitive characteristics.

Note: The discussion should include the map that you drew for the analysis.

4.  Evaluate two key factors that will impact your company’s success.
5.  Analyze the impact that each of the five types of competitive forces will have on competition in your industry.

B.  Develop a strategic plan for your company by doing the following:
1.  Develop an effective vision statement that fits your industry.
2.  Develop a mission statement.
3.  Develop a distinctive competency to distinguish your company from competitors.
4.  Describe an example how your company could capitalize on a market opportunity.
5.  Analyze one external threat to your company.
a.  Recommend actions to address the threat.
6.  Propose one business-level financial objective that fits your company and situation. Include the following in your proposal:
•  How you would measure achievement of the objective
•  A strategy for achieving the objective
7.  Propose one functional-level strategic objective that fits your company and situation. Include the following in your proposal:
•  How you would measure achievement of the objective
•  A strategy for achieving the objective

C.  Discuss how you would execute your company’s strategic plan by doing the following:
1.  Explain how each of the following 10 principal managerial components can be used in the strategy execution process.
•  Staff the organization with managers and employees capable of executing the strategy well.
•  Build the organizational capabilities required for successful strategy execution.
•  Create a strategy-supportive organizational structure.
•  Allocate sufficient budgetary (and other) resources to the strategy execution effort.
•  Institute policies and procedures that facilitate strategy execution.
•  Adopt best practices and business processes that drive continuous improvement in strategy execution activities.
•  Install information and operating systems that enable company personnel to carry out their strategic roles proficiently.
•  Tie rewards and incentives directly to the achievement of strategic and financial targets.
•  Instill a corporate culture that promotes good strategy execution.
•  Exercise the internal leadership needed to propel strategy implementation forward.
2.  Illustrate the actions you would take to closely align the entire company’s efforts to the company’s mission.
3.  Analyze how you could apply two theories of motivation that are proven to help individuals and teams achieve objectives.
4.  Discuss organizational considerations for structuring the work effort to successfully execute your strategic plan.
5.  Discuss current and emerging organizational characteristics that may contribute to successful execution of your strategic plan.
6.  Recommend an approach leaders should use to make corrective adjustments during your company’s strategy execution.